The statement Monday comes in response to a 2024 draft study published at the end of the Biden administration detailing the environmental, economic and other impacts of gas exports.
The Biden administration study came after it paused approvals on new gas export projects, saying it needed to reevaluate the broad implications of shipping more U.S. gas abroad. The administration included a 60-day comment period along with the draft study.
On Monday, the Trump administration published a response to those comments — giving some clues as to how it would assess gas export projects going forward.
The Trump commentary said the environmental impacts of gas exports are outside of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) jurisdiction, and therefore should not be considered in its approvals of gas export projects.
“Natural gas production, processing, and transportation have environmental effects. Federal, state, and local regulatory requirements that are outside DOE’s authority over LNG [liquefied natural gas] exports include measures to reduce or mitigate any potential related impacts,” the Trump commentary states.
It also said that “the denial of LNG export authorizations would be too blunt an instrument to address the concerns raised.”
Trump administration official Tala Goudarzi said in a statement that the response to the study “will allow DOE to close out this chapter and fully return to regular order on LNG exports.”
Read more at TheHill.com.
